Magnetic fields have been applied in various applications to polar liquids to change a property of the liquid. Polar liquids are liquids that contain polar molecules. For a molecule to be polar, it has to experience dipole moments within itself. An electrical dipole moment is caused by unequal electronegativity between atoms in a covalent bond. A water molecule by itself is polar. The term polar liquid used herein refers to a liquid that is at least partially polar such as a mixture of a polar liquid and a non-polar liquid, e.g. water and oil.
Static fields with large gradients have been used to separate particles within fluids. Magnetic fields have been used to reduce scale within pipes, and electromagnetic signals have been used in numerous applications in industry. For example, US Patent Application 20140374236 in the name of Moore et al. describes a liquid treatment device comprising: two antennae; an enclosure for holding a liquid including a solvent and a solute; a generator operatively connected to the two antennae to generate an oscillating voltage in each antenna, wherein each voltage is out of phase with the other to create an oscillating electric field; and the liquid in the enclosure being subjected to the electric field in the presence of a magnetic field to change the chemical and/or physical properties of the solute, without the liquid contacting the two antennae. This device is essentially a conductive wire wrapped around a pipe containing the fluid coupled to a signal generator. Moore et al. suggest that the magnetic field coil may be wrapped around a non-ferrous or ferrous material that is positioned close to the liquid containing enclosure but does not contact the liquid. However, devices attached to a pipe with a polar liquid, such as disclosed by Moore et al. and other prior art references, provide limited output and cannot be used for treatment of open bodies of water such as rivers and industrial ponds.
Relative to open waters, US Patent Application No. 20180216246 in the name of Chew et al. teaches immersing a coil into seawater near a metal structure so as to produce an ionic current in the seawater and thus prevent a corrosion current from leaving the surface of the metal. It is cost efficient to practice the method in the proximity to the metal target. Morse et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,606,723 also employ the electric field effected in the liquid; they teach a coil in an air-tight housing, with voltage probe discs attached at the ends of the coil for delivering an electric field into the solution. However, treating large open bodies of water, or any other polar liquid for that matter, remains an open problem, and new transducer devices and methods of their use need to be developed.